‘Toros & Toreros’ Extra (5): Javier Conde
Javier Conde was one of those novilleros who, it seemed, could do no wrong. He had a distinctive style, those gypsy looks and a facility for toreando every animal that came his way.
I first came across him in the Sevilla fair of 1991. He cut an ear off each of his novillos, despite two attempts with the estoque on both, having shown some superb work with the muleta and youthful bravado. Next year, in Córdoba, he again showed well, cocky and fluid on his first novillo until a desarme broke the spell and winning an ear from his second animal. My notes record “a faena a su marca - plenty of mirando al tendido, close passes, blood on belly”. He won another ear in Santander’s novillada that summer, showing some ojedista touches and coping well with a difficult, hooking animal from Francisco Galache, although still displaying a weakness with the sword.
In 1993, at Las Fallas, there were “one or two magic series with the muleta, Conde composing a slow-motion piece of theatre” on his first juanpedro novillo, then splendid opening capework and a brilliant faena of close, stylish, measured and varied passes before a decent estocada and two handkerchiefs proffered simultaneously by the president. I saw him twice more that summer, at Cuéllar, where a confident and grinning Conde won an ear from each bull, and at Medina del Campo, where he managed to cut an ear from a reluctant José Vázquez novillo before giving his second an excellent faena of slow passes and then losing trophies with the sword.
Perhaps something happened between then and the next time I saw Javier, at Colmenar Viejo in the summer of 1994 with novillos of María Auxilio Holgado. His first animal had an uncertain and short charge and Javier was plainly scared of it, even running from it at one point. An early estocada led to pitos. His second novillo was no easy beast, and this time Javier “perdió los papeles”, only managing one poor series at the faena’s end before protracted swordwork and further whistles. That was my last sighting of him before he took the alternativa at his home ring of Málaga on 16 April 1995 (cutting three ears), and it set the scene for my future viewings of him in his career as a matador de toros.
From being a brave and accomplished novillero, as a matador, he unfortunately never performed well again when I was spectating. Indeed, clearly viewing himself as an ‘artista’, he pursued a form of toreo that was virtually impossible to bring off with any decent toro bravo. I described it in Dialogues With Death: “Conde contented himself (and some of the audience) with brief half-passes, and, at one point, danced his way towards his stationary animal like a glittering flamenco star, before pirouetting immediately in front of the toro and offering it his muleta. All very pretty, but none of it to do with true toreo, which requires a bull that moves.”
The French - at least those who go to the Nîmes feria - loved him, perhaps because of his archetypal appearance and the ‘artista’ tag. At Nîmes’ Vendanges feria of 2008, there was a morning corrida featuring Julio Aparicio, Javier Conde and Morante de la Puebla with Domingo Hernández bulls. The Club Taurino of London contingent at the feria viewed the cartel with some trepidation - either something memorable could occur or (we felt more likely) the event would be a total disaster. We decided to increase our interest in the proceedings by organising a sweepstake. Six of us drew tickets (‘Morante – qué valor!’ or ‘Morante – qué horror!’, etc.) and contributed some euros to the pot. The winner of the cash would be the holder of the ‘Qué valor!’ ticket of the matador judged to have performed best on a single bull: the loser (the holder of the ‘Qué horror!’ ticket of the matador judged to have performed the worst with a single bull) would buy the next round of drinks once we’d reached a consensus on the two performances concerned. In the end, it required a lot of discussion over a very pleasant lunch at the Hotel Imperator, with the loser very gallantly picking up the wine tab for the meal.
The corrida was indeed very poor, punctuated by jeering from the first bull onwards (only Aparicio was awarded an ear - after a minority petition - and he was booed when he came out to collect it). In the end, it was a fine decision, but it was Javier Conde whose performance was judged by us to be the worst overall. There were just two decent capotazos as he hurried through the opening tercio to his first bull, while the faena was very much de más a menos, Conde starting well but then being troubled by the wind and chopping and changing his cloth hand prior to delivering two pinchazos and a low half-sword. Worse was to come. Conde managed to give his other bull a few decent verónicas before going onto the defensive and eventually running away from his enemigo. The faena was awful, Javier seemingly content to hold the muleta out towards the bull, but with no toques or any other measure made to entice it forward. And this went on for some time… Two avisos sounded before the bull was killed with two pinchazos from the side and a half sword to the lungs.
One aspect of Javier’s toreo that has remained - and is very attractive when it is done well (it has become part of his friend Enrique Ponce’s repertoire) - is el cite de abaniqueo, presenting a corner of the muleta in front of a stationary bull’s muzzle and then switching the cloth on the ground from one side to the other until finally bringing it back and the animal past the torero’s body in either a pase de pecho or a natural.
This ‘Extra’ series covers toreros not featured in Tristan’s new book ‘Toros & Toreros’, which looks at the last 50 years of bullfighting and contains memories and photographs of more than 60 toreros and over 11 ganaderías.